Shawangunk Kill
Encyclopedia
The Shawangunk Kill
is a 47.2 miles (76 km) stream that flows northward through Orange
, Sullivan
and Ulster
counties, New York
, in the United States
. It is the largest tributary of the Wallkill River
.
It takes its name from the neighboring Shawangunk Ridge
, where it rises in the town of Greenville
, then flowing down into the valley. For part of its length, it forms the northwestern boundary of Orange County, with first Sullivan and then Ulster County along the other side.
, by which point it has already lost almost half its original elevation. It passes through fields and woods east of Otisville
. At the hamlet of New Vernon, it becomes the Orange-Sullivan county line and shortly thereafter receives its first named tributary, the Little Shawangunk Kill.
It begins to widen a bit at Bloomingburg
, and north of that community it is crossed by NY 17
, the busiest road along the kill. Several miles to the north, the confluence
of another tributary, the Platte Kill, marks the point where Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties come together as the stream bends slightly towards a more eastern heading.
Pine Bush
eventually rises on the east, and a few more miles north of that hamlet the kill becomes the exclusive property of Ulster County when the boundary returns to land at Orange County's northernmost point. The Shawangunk continues to meander into a wider and wider valley, populated mostly with farms and woodlot
s, the mountain ridge spreading across the western sky. Finally, it curves due east and joins the Wallkill just south of US 44
-NY 55
near Gardiner
.
) found that the lower Shawangunk (from its mouth to Pine Bush) supports an unusually diverse plant and animal community for the region due to the absence of any serious impoundment
along the upper river. It reported no less than six species of freshwater mussel
s, including the rare swollen wedge mussel, and 31 species of fish. Among the latter were the rare Notropis
amoenus (comely shiner), Notropis stramineus (sand shiner
), Percina
caproedes (logperch), Lepomis auritis (redbreasted sunfish
) and Noteris insignus (margined madtom
).
The study found that the region supports the only known community of Diarrhena obovata (beakgrass) in the state. Other rare plants in the lower Shawangunk Kill include threadfoot on submerged ledges, sharp-winged monkeyflower, wingstem and redrooted flatsedge along the stream itself, with Davis' sedge, swamp agrimony, Aster vimeneus (small white aster) and violet bushclover joining the beakgrass in the flood plains.
Due to the minimal development (mostly agricultural) within much of its watershed, there is very little pollution.
, covered by silty loam soils left behind by past glaciation. The stream bed itself varies from solid rock to particulates such as gravel, sand and clay. Geologically, the Shawangunk valley is part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
, typified by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west and the lower Hoagerburgh Ridge to the east.
Kill (body of water)
As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." The modern Dutch term is kil....
is a 47.2 miles (76 km) stream that flows northward through Orange
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
, Sullivan
Sullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The name is in honor of Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War...
and Ulster
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
counties, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is the largest tributary of the Wallkill River
Wallkill River
The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly to Rondout Creek in New York, near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston....
.
It takes its name from the neighboring Shawangunk Ridge
Shawangunk Ridge
The Shawangunk Ridge , also known as the Shawangunk Mountains or The Gunks, is a ridge of bedrock in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of New Jersey to the Catskill Mountains.The ridgetop, which widens considerably at...
, where it rises in the town of Greenville
Greenville, Orange County, New York
Greenville is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 4,616 at the 2010 census.The town of Greenville is located along the south county line, which is also the state line....
, then flowing down into the valley. For part of its length, it forms the northwestern boundary of Orange County, with first Sullivan and then Ulster County along the other side.
Course
From its source in Greenville, the Shawangunk flows steadily northeastward to Mill Pond, near Mount HopeMount Hope, New York
Mount Hope is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 6,639 at the 2000 census.The Town of Mount Hope is in the northwestern part of the county, west of Middletown...
, by which point it has already lost almost half its original elevation. It passes through fields and woods east of Otisville
Otisville, New York
Otisville is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 989 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...
. At the hamlet of New Vernon, it becomes the Orange-Sullivan county line and shortly thereafter receives its first named tributary, the Little Shawangunk Kill.
It begins to widen a bit at Bloomingburg
Bloomingburg, New York
Bloomingburg, previously Bloomingburgh, is a village in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 353 at the 2000 census.The Village of Bloomingburg is in the Town of Mamakating.- History :...
, and north of that community it is crossed by NY 17
New York State Route 17
New York State Route 17 is a state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States...
, the busiest road along the kill. Several miles to the north, the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of another tributary, the Platte Kill, marks the point where Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties come together as the stream bends slightly towards a more eastern heading.
Pine Bush
Pine Bush, New York
Pine Bush is a hamlet located in the Town of Crawford, and Shawangunk, New York, in Orange/Ulster Counties, New York, U.S., roughly coterminous with the 12566 ZIP code and 744 telephone exchange in the 845 area code Pine Bush is a hamlet (and census-designated place) located in the Town of...
eventually rises on the east, and a few more miles north of that hamlet the kill becomes the exclusive property of Ulster County when the boundary returns to land at Orange County's northernmost point. The Shawangunk continues to meander into a wider and wider valley, populated mostly with farms and woodlot
Woodlot
A woodlot is a term used in North America to refer to a segment of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation...
s, the mountain ridge spreading across the western sky. Finally, it curves due east and joins the Wallkill just south of US 44
U.S. Route 44
U.S. Route 44 is an east–west United States highway that runs for 237 miles through four states in the Northeastern region of the United States. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 209 and New York State Route 55 in Kerhonkson, a hamlet in the Hudson Valley region of New York...
-NY 55
New York State Route 55
New York State Route 55 is a state highway in southern New York, running from the Pennsylvania state line at the Delaware River in Barryville to the Connecticut state line at Wingdale...
near Gardiner
Gardiner (CDP), New York
Gardiner is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 856 at the 2000 census.The community is near the center of the Town of Gardiner on routes 44 and 55.-Geography:...
.
Natural history
In the early 1990s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, when it was researching the fate of the former Galeville air base site (now Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife RefugeShawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge
The Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge located in Ulster County, New York, USA.Formerly the Galeville Military Airport, it was decommissioned in 1994 and turned over to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999...
) found that the lower Shawangunk (from its mouth to Pine Bush) supports an unusually diverse plant and animal community for the region due to the absence of any serious impoundment
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
along the upper river. It reported no less than six species of freshwater mussel
Mussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...
s, including the rare swollen wedge mussel, and 31 species of fish. Among the latter were the rare Notropis
Notropis
Notropis, commonly known as the eastern shiners or simply "shiners", is a genus of cyprinid fish found in North America, and is the second largest genus of freshwater fish on the continent. Most small minnows found in North American belong to Notropis. Not all small cyprinids commonly referred...
amoenus (comely shiner), Notropis stramineus (sand shiner
Shiner (fish)
Shiner is a common name used for any of several kinds of small, usually silvery fish, in particular a number of cyprinids, but also e.g. the Shiner Perch .Cyprinid shiners are:* Eastern shiners, genus Notropis...
), Percina
Percina
Percina is a genus of small bony fishes of the family Percidae, mostly from North America. Like similar Etheostomatinae they are called "darters". More specifically the genus as a whole is known as roughbelly darters, while certain species of Percina with a pattern of vertical bars on the flanks...
caproedes (logperch), Lepomis auritis (redbreasted sunfish
Redbreast sunfish
The redbreast sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to the river systems of eastern Canada and the United States....
) and Noteris insignus (margined madtom
Madtom
Madtoms or stonecats are catfishes of the genus Noturus of the family Ictaluridae. It is the most speciose group of catfish in North America....
).
The study found that the region supports the only known community of Diarrhena obovata (beakgrass) in the state. Other rare plants in the lower Shawangunk Kill include threadfoot on submerged ledges, sharp-winged monkeyflower, wingstem and redrooted flatsedge along the stream itself, with Davis' sedge, swamp agrimony, Aster vimeneus (small white aster) and violet bushclover joining the beakgrass in the flood plains.
Due to the minimal development (mostly agricultural) within much of its watershed, there is very little pollution.
Geology
The river bedrock is predominantly shaleShale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
, covered by silty loam soils left behind by past glaciation. The stream bed itself varies from solid rock to particulates such as gravel, sand and clay. Geologically, the Shawangunk valley is part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from southeastern New York through northwestern New...
, typified by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west and the lower Hoagerburgh Ridge to the east.
Crossings
North to south, going upriver- Albany Post Road (Ulster County Route 9)
- McKinstry Road (Ulster County Route 7A)
- Hoagerburgh Road (Ulster County Route 18)
- Wallkill Avenue (Town of CrawfordCrawford, New YorkCrawford is a town in Orange County, New York, USA. The population was 7,875 at the 2000 census. The name comes a settler who gave his name to a community in the town now called Pine Bush....
, Orange County)/Bruyn Turnpike (Town of ShawangunkShawangunk, New YorkShawangunk is a town in southwestern Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 12,022 at the 2000 census. Like the neighboring mountain range, for which it is named, it is pronounced either as the Munsee Lenape, Shawangunk , or as the colonial Shongum by local residents...
, Ulster County) - Hardenbugh Road
NY 52New York State Route 52New York State Route 52 is a long state highway in the southeastern part of New York in the United States. It generally runs from west to east, beginning at the Pennsylvania state line in the Delaware River near Narrowsburg, crossing the Hudson River on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, and ending...- Ulsterville Road
- Crawford Street
- Orange County Route 48/Sullivan County Route 66
- Petticoat Lane
NY 17New York State Route 17New York State Route 17 is a state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States...- Orange County 76/Sullivan County 171
- Spruce Road
- New Vernon Road (Orange County Route 18)
- Shoddy Hollow Road
- Metro-NorthMetro-North RailroadThe Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
Port Jervis LinePort Jervis Line (Metro-North)The Metro-North Railroad Port Jervis Line is a predominantly single-track commuter rail line running from Suffern, New York to Port Jervis. At Suffern, the line continues south into New Jersey as NJ Transit's Main Line.... - Carboy Road
NY 211New York State Route 211New York State Route 211 is a state highway located entirely within Orange County, New York, in the United States. The western terminus is at the intersection with US 209 located in Cuddebackville, and the eastern terminus is located at Montgomery at NY 17K, where it becomes the...- Mount Hope Road (Orange County Route 11)
- Guymard Turnpike (Orange County Route 24)
- Kohler Road
- Eatontown Road
- Fort Van Tyle Road
- Springbrook Road
- Mullock Road
Tributaries
- Platte Kill
- Little Shawangunk KillLittle Shawangunk KillThe Little Shawangunk Kill is a tributary of the Shawangunk Kill in Orange County, New York in the United States. It rises in the southwest corner of Wallkill and flows northward.-External links:*...
- Tomy Kill
- Verkeerder Kill
- Dwaar KillDwaar Kill (Shawangunk Kill)The Dwaar Kill is a tributary of the Shawangunk Kill in Ulster County, New York, in the United States.The Dwaar Kill is born from Lake Awosting in Minnewaska State Park Preserve.-References:...